Building a capability-based microkernel from scratch. Security researcher on the side.
Wolfram is a capability-based microkernel written in Rust. Processes start with empty handle tables and receive resources explicitly. The Uranium-238-v0.2.0 prerelease brings up a real userspace privilege boundary on RISC-V 64 and x86-64.
It boots in QEMU on both architectures. A physical x86-64 boot has also passed the kernel checks and userspace syscall roundtrip. The physical allocator currently manages up to 4 GiB of RAM.
| Area | Working now | Still to build |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | Buddy allocator, VMO-backed pages, and Sv39 / PML4 address spaces on both architectures | Remove the 4-GiB RAM ceiling and manage all installed system memory; expose VMO operations through syscalls |
| Tasks and authority | Hierarchical jobs, process and thread containers, capability handles, and zero ambient authority | Capability and handle syscalls, scheduled task creation, and complete exit cleanup |
| IPC | Kernel channel and FastCall primitives, including capability transfer | Userspace channel syscalls, blocking receive, and FastCall integration |
| Userspace boundary | U-mode / Ring 3 entry, returning bootstrap syscalls, checked user copies, and tested supervisor isolation, RX-write protection, and NX execution | ELF loading, init, and a usable userspace runtime |
| Shell and tools | — | An interactive shell and fer, the system CLI for packages and services, drivers, capabilities, memory, IPC, and jobs |
fer begins as a userspace command skeleton that communicates with init and system services over channels. The roadmap builds it into Wolfram’s management interface as those services come online.
VWH — cryptographic proof-of-presence for red team engagements. Ed25519 signatures, BLAKE3 note hashes, GPG-signed registry. "Valid" and "trustworthy" are not synonyms. VWH is built around that distinction.
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